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Is there anyone in there? Psychiatric nursing meets biological psychiatry
Author(s) -
Dawson Paul J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
nursing inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.66
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1800
pISSN - 1320-7881
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1800.1997.tb00095.x
Subject(s) - monism , reductionism , materialism , psychology , objectivism , epistemology , holism , mediation , sociology , philosophy , social science
Is there anyone in there? Psychiatric nursing meets biological psychiatry Mental health nursing operates without a clear idea of the nature of both mind and mental. Increasingly, this lack of a defensible theoretical position has led to an increasing dependence on the concept of mind now current in biological psychiatry. But die materialist monism of biological psychiatry is itself open to doubt, particularly concerning its dependence on a priori assumptions about die nature of die relationship between mind and brain. The reductionism and objectivism inherent in dlis approach necessarily ignores diat aspect of mind most germane to nursing, die first‐person nature of die mental. An alternative is briefly sketched which stresses the mediation of behaviour by die brain, radier dian viewing behaviour as causally related to brain processes. Adoption of this approach conserves nursing's focus on die subjective experience as being paramount. Nursing education should, dierefore, be wary of incorporating the biological approach widiout a critical analysis of its suppositions and of die conception of human nature which it supports